A 26-year-old drilling engineer is among the nine fly-in fly-out (FIFO) workers who have taken their own lives in the past year.

Rob, whose surname has not been revealed, ended his life on a Queensland mine site in November 2013, while working a three weeks on, three weeks off roster in coal seam gas exploration for QGC.

His partner, Christine, said FIFO's lifestyle and work pressures became increasingly overwhelming for Rob and by the end he felt like his 'brain had broken.'

'He had actually been trying to find a new job for months because we both agreed that no one can function like that,' Christine told The Courier Mail.

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FIFO worker Rob, who's surname not revealed, ended his life on a Queensland mine site in November 2013, while working a three weeks on, three weeks off roster in coal seam gas exploration for QGC

'When he was out there, he worked 12 hours a day, every day, sometimes late into the night,' she said. 'He even slept and ate at the rig site and was on call 24 hours. He said it was a "living hell"'.

The couple had been dating for six years, after meeting at university in South Australia while Christine was on exchange from Canada.

She said the expectation to work beyond his expertise facilitated Rob's stress but was eventually addressed once he spoke to his boss, who gave him extra resources.

But his struggle with mental health was something Rob was too embarrassed to discuss, fearing it would affect his reputation at work.

Paul Grogran, QGC human resources vice-president said free and confidential access to counsellors are available to employees.

'Safety is a regular feature of our conversations with staff and takes priority over everything else,' he said.

Mental Health Commissioner Tim Marney told a public hearing on Wednesday that the apparent increase in FIFO suicides over the past 12 months was tragically not surprising.

Another FIFO worker who suffered from depression, Rhys Connor, died on July 25 last year in his room at the Hope Downs mine site in the Pilbara in Western Australia

Suicide is the single biggest killer of people aged 15 to 44 years old, while the average age of a FIFO worker is 38, Mr Marney said.

The FIFO workforce is also 80 percent men, who account for four out of five suicides.

Another FIFO worker who suffer from depression, Rhys Connor, died on July 25 last year in his room at the Hope Downs mine site in the Pilbara in Western Australia.

Mr Connor spoke about his experience in an interview for a government-funded project on miners released by his family on the anniversary of his death to raise awareness about the risks of isolation and depression faced by FIFO workers

The father-of-one had spoken about the cost of the FIFO lifestyle on his mental health and wellbeing just days earlier, urging those considering FIFO to 'rethink' their decision.

Mr Connor spoke about his experience in an interview for a government-funded project on miners released by his family on the anniversary of his death to raise awareness about the risks of isolation and depression faced by FIFO workers.

'People do struggle up there with depression and at the moment I'm going through it,' Mr Connor said in the interview.

He said that some workers 'drink every night' to cope with the lifestyle and named isolation as a key problem for FIFO-workers.

'You're in your room every night of the week. You just think about things. You think about your family and what they’re doing now... You miss your family,' he said.

'There are people out there what seem to be fine, and deep down they're not. People have got to realise that everyone's not OK.'

For the families of fly-in, fly-out workers who have committed suicide, an inquiry into the mental health of Western Australia's FIFO workers came as a great relief.

The decision came after the families spoke to The Sunday Times last week, calling for preventative measures for mental health in FIFO workers.

But Christine hopes to see all states in Australia follow WA's lead, who said this is an 'industry-wide' issue.

Senator Wang, of the Palmer United Party also reiterated the need for a national investigation.

'WA has launched an inquiry to examine the issues behind the tragic deaths yet the Federal Government has not done anything about it,' said Senator Wang.

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Alan Woodward, Executive Directive of Lifeline Research Foundation, conducted a study of mental health among 900 FIFO workers last year.

He found that while FIFO workers did not experience a higher rate of mental health issues compared to the rest of Western Australian citizens, they did experience specific hardships relating to mental health.

'A key concern for us out of that study was often the attitude among the workforce that it was somehow soft to say that you're having troubles,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'It was summed up in a phrase from one our interviews that "if you were having troubles in your life, you just had to suck it up princess". That was a very unhelpful attitude, that can prevent people from seeking help.'